The Great Falls Voyagers pose with the Pioneer League Championship Trophy after sweeping Grand ...more

The Great Falls Voyagers pose with the Pioneer League Championship Trophy after sweeping Grand Junction in two games Thursday night at Centene Stadium.

TRIBUNE/LEE VERNOY

Travis Moniot doubled home two runs in a three-run second inning, Missoula native Cody Heuer recorded a win and Devon Perez notched the save as the Great Falls Voyagers edged out the Grand Junction Rockies 6-4, giving the Voyagers a two-game sweep of the Southern Division champions to win the Pioneer League title.

It is the 13th Pioneer League crown won by a Great Falls franchise, covering their affiliations with the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, and their current parent club, the Chicago White Sox.

Starting hurler Jonathan Stiever kept the Rockies off the scoreboard for the first three innings, allowing three singles and a walk while striking out two, before handing the ball to Heuer.

Normally a starter, the right-handed Heuer had been through a turbulent regular season. In 14 starts, Heuer was 0-1 with a 4.74 ERA. The league was hitting .310 against him.

He did stepstep around a one-out double by Nico Decolati in the fourth, but couldn't avoid giving up two runs in each of the the two innings that allowed Grand Junction to pull within a run at 5-4. Only two of the runs were earned. A throwing error by Amado Nunez allowed John Cresto to reach base. Cresto moved to second on a ground ball, and after a walk to Will Goslan, Cresto scored on a Hunter Stovall single. Back-to-back passed balls allowed Goslan to score the second run of the fifth.

In the sixth, the Rockies loaded the sacks with one out. Pinch hitter Reese Berberet hit a tailor-made double play ball to Lenyn Sosa at short, who threw to second for the force, but Nunez slipped corssing the bag while throwing the first, and the ball went into the first base dugout, allowing two runs to cross. And after a Will Goslan infield single, Heuer's night was over and Perez came in to strike out Hunter Stovall to end the inning.

Perez kept the Rockies in check before giving up a pair of safeties in the ninth, but he struck out Decolati to start the celebration. In all, Perez worked 3⅓ innings, giving up three hits while striking out seven. He struck out the side in the ninth, the first two batter on called third strikes.

For Heuer, it was his first professional win, and it couldn't have come at a more opportune time.

"Hopefully it's not my biggest win, but it's been fun," Heuer said. "My first prefessional season, to get my first ring, that's awesome.

"We have a great group of guys here. Couldn't be happier."

Heuer admitted the road to his first win was a bumpy one, considering he had pitched an entire season of college ball at D-1 Wichita State.

"It has been bumpy, but coming off a long college season, it's been a long year, and a lot of people don't understand that," Heuer added. "We found a way to fight through.

"We had a good first half, and some struggle in the second half, but we got hot when we needed to. I couldn't be happier."

"These guys persevered all year, and the accumulation of today, they hung in there all year long," Voyaegrs' manager Tim Esmay said. "We got off to a good lead, and then they came back, but we hung in there and made the plays we needed to. It was a great year."

Near the end of the first half of the season, which the Voyagers won, eight members of the team were promoted to Single A Kanapolis, and general manager Scott Reasoner said that's where the rebuilding process of the Voyagers began.

"It was unbelievable to have an amazing first half like we did, and then to lose eight of our players in one week," Reasoner said. "And then you have a brand-new team, and you have to relearn and form new chemistry and come together.

"It just speaks volumes of Tim and the staff, and what they were able to do to put everything together, and make this run; four straight for the title."

The Voyagers, who beat Billings in two games to reach the finals, got a run in the first when Romy Gonzalez singled off the glove of the shortstop to bring in Lenyn Sosa, who tripled off the centerfield wall.

Moniot's two-bagger with the bases loaded in the second was the key hit of that frame, knocking starter Trent Fennell out of the box. Sosa's grounder to second brought home Micah Coffey to make it 4-0.

Coffey's single in the third would make it 5-0 Great Falls, and the taste of a title was there for the taking. They just had to work a bit for it.

Nunez, the first Pioneer League batting champion from a Great Falls in 45 years, would atone for his errors when he singled with runners at first and second, bringing home Gonzalez with an important insurance run.

Nunez could barely contain his excitement after the game: "I feel good, I feel great, I helped my team," he said, breaking out in joyous laughter.

On a cold night in Great Falls, Montana, Amado Nunez was soaked with champagne and beer. And loving every minute of it.